I was one of many in my class who were more than just a little bit reluctant to experiment with blogs and YouTubes. It took me a while to even put my name on my blog. Figuratively speaking, we were all dragged kicking, and not so silently screaming, into having a personal presence on the Internet beyond that of email and FaceBook. I hate to have to admit this, but I need to give credit where credit is due. My Community Social Work teacher was right about using the Internet to do community advocacy social work.
A lot of the concerns that I had had to do with not wanting to be so public in my writing. It is not my kind of thing to do, yet I have found that I can be just as opinionated as the next person, with such a platform as a blog. I also know now that, by and large, there is so much out there on the web now that one person's contribution can easily escape notice in an Internet that is astronomically vast. Hence, why worry about being read and critiqued? What I have found is few people beyond my friends and family barely notice, and I recently discovered that I even have family who are too busy reading something else! You know who you are, if you ever get to reading this...
Yet, I have stumbled into the real reason for doing this, and that is the Internet is a valuable tool for community activism, even on a small scale such as mine. If not for the Community Social Work class assignments, I would not have had any way to help a friend, and through the blogs and a video, to help her to help others. In researching my information, I have become keenly aware of how much can be presented on the Internet that would never make it into the mainstream media. An individual can say what a newspaper or television station would hesitate to publish because of advertising concerns. I understand on a personal level now why a free Internet is vital to an exchange of information, at a time when schools of higher education are being downsized and the proper public relations spin is put on the news by governments and corporations.
The semester is coming to an end, and this is the last of the ten blogs that I am required to do for my class. However it felt like being thrown into the water in the deep end during this class, I did learn to keep my head above water and even make it to the side of the Internet pool. I will be using this blog again. It won't be that regular, but now and again I might have something that I consider worth the effort to say. No one really needs to listen to me, but at least if I have something worth saying, in my personal opinion, then on the Internet, somewhere, somehow, someone may need that input and find it useful one day.
But DANG! This has been a lot of work!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Heavy Metal Florists: Jill's Journey
Since the early 1990's, florists in the United States have been chronically exposed to contaminated flowers imported from other countries with little to no pesticide regulations, as well as from industry workplace practices. Many pesticides and fungicides contain heavy metals, such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead and silver. Chronic exposure to heavy metals from pesticides and fungicides can result in neurological and organ damage. A wide range of symptoms, such as vertigo, tremors, metal taste, excess salivation, memory loss, and chronic fatigue, defy ordinary diagnosis because doctors are not trained to consider heavy metal toxicity as a possibility. Florists with many years of experience, dating especially from the nineties, are often misdiagnosed and never know that their problems are due to high levels of heavy metals in their bodies.
A group of florists in Northern California have tested positive for very high levels of exposure to heavy metals. The story of one of those florists was previously covered in this blog. This is a continuation of that story. The link below is to a YouTube video of Jill describing her experiences over the last 6-7 years:
Heavy Metal Florists: Jill's Journey
Since that blog, the union representing the grocery workers in their Northern California area has published an article in the hopes of alerting other florists to possible heavy metal exposure.
The memory loss suffered by the original group of seven long-time florists, all floral managers, is being studied by a researcher at the University of San Francisco. The memory loss sustained is permanent, but it may be possible to retrain other parts of their brains to compensate. There is also organ damage, especially to the kidneys and to the adrenal glands. Depending on the susceptibility of the individual, damage to the kidneys can lead to complete kidney failure, and has resulted in the death of an eighth florist who was in the process of testing when he died. Damage to the adrenal glands leads to extreme chronic fatigue as well as immunological problems. The list of possible symptoms is not short, as the entire body is permanently affected by chronic heavy metal poisoning. A single therapy exists to try to remove heavy metals from the body, which is often not covered by ordinary insurance or Medicare. Families and individuals struggle to pay for the therapy that is required, as it is considered not mainstream therapy. It is called chelation therapy, and it is hard on the body and on the person.
Part of Jill's journey was to fight to obtain disability status from the Social Security Administration. After a legal battle in the courts, disability status was granted retroactively to Jill, setting a precedent for anyone else who applies with similar problems and diagnosis. What took Jill three years to accomplish now takes three months for others.
If you know of a friend or family member who is a florist or has been one in the past, please consider letting them know that they could be at risk. If they are experiencing symptoms such as described in this blog, have them contact Jill at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
A group of florists in Northern California have tested positive for very high levels of exposure to heavy metals. The story of one of those florists was previously covered in this blog. This is a continuation of that story. The link below is to a YouTube video of Jill describing her experiences over the last 6-7 years:
Heavy Metal Florists: Jill's Journey
Since that blog, the union representing the grocery workers in their Northern California area has published an article in the hopes of alerting other florists to possible heavy metal exposure.
The memory loss suffered by the original group of seven long-time florists, all floral managers, is being studied by a researcher at the University of San Francisco. The memory loss sustained is permanent, but it may be possible to retrain other parts of their brains to compensate. There is also organ damage, especially to the kidneys and to the adrenal glands. Depending on the susceptibility of the individual, damage to the kidneys can lead to complete kidney failure, and has resulted in the death of an eighth florist who was in the process of testing when he died. Damage to the adrenal glands leads to extreme chronic fatigue as well as immunological problems. The list of possible symptoms is not short, as the entire body is permanently affected by chronic heavy metal poisoning. A single therapy exists to try to remove heavy metals from the body, which is often not covered by ordinary insurance or Medicare. Families and individuals struggle to pay for the therapy that is required, as it is considered not mainstream therapy. It is called chelation therapy, and it is hard on the body and on the person.
Part of Jill's journey was to fight to obtain disability status from the Social Security Administration. After a legal battle in the courts, disability status was granted retroactively to Jill, setting a precedent for anyone else who applies with similar problems and diagnosis. What took Jill three years to accomplish now takes three months for others.
If you know of a friend or family member who is a florist or has been one in the past, please consider letting them know that they could be at risk. If they are experiencing symptoms such as described in this blog, have them contact Jill at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
Friday, April 23, 2010
The World's Orphans and Culture
After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, my local paper ran a few Associated Press articles with compelling pictures of Haitian children arriving in foreign countries for adoption immediately afterward. The children’s ages ranged from infants to grade school age, wrapped in blankets and newly acquired coats, as they arrived in countries with climates very different from their own earthquake damaged Caribbean land (Dutch Airlift, 2010).
People in Western nations speeded up adoptions of Haitian orphans that had been in progress, in order to remove them to a safer environment away from the disaster of their own country. The children were airlifted out of Haiti by some governments in the initial world reaction to protect the children coming from orphanages that were now piles of rubble. At first most of the children appeared to have been in the process of adoption, but some scooped children up and tried to take them out of the country without first obtaining approval of their status as adoptable orphans, or consideration of other available extended family who might want them. The Haitian government within a few weeks put a temporary stop on adoptions because of such misguided attempts (Velazquez, 2010).
There was a comment in one of the articles about the Dutch airlift that counselors skilled in handling post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied the children on the plane. Their presence appeared unnecessary as the children slept, ate and played (Dutch Airlift, 2010). The presence of the counselors was certainly helpful, and may have contributed to the ease of the transition at that particular time. However, there was no mention of helping the children with their new environment, as these children grow up between two different cultural worldviews, the Afrocentric one of their native country and the Eurocentric one of the new adoptive parents in the West.
According to Avant (2004), the Afrocentric worldview is the opposite of the Eurocentric worldview. The Afrocentric worldview is communal, as well as spiritual, with a holistic perspective of the interconnections of people and all things. Extended kinship networks and neighbors are important, with mutual cooperation valued and reinforced by shared experience. The Eurocentric worldview, in contrast, is much more individualistic and materialistic. Haitian children, coming from the Afrocentric culture of Haiti where they fit in without any effort, must now navigate a bewildering new world on both a physical and a cultural level. What sorts of counseling resources will this new group of adopted children and parents have to mesh their conflicting cultures within the new family?
Rescuing children from real or perceived difficult environments or disasters is not that unusual. It has happened many times over in the past, especially when it seemed there were no better alternatives if the children remained, in the particular cultural viewpoint of their rescuers. It happened in the United States during the Indian Adoption era from the 1950s to the 1970s, when child welfare agencies removed a large proportion of Native American children from poverty conditions, placing them with Caucasian families across state lines in a misguided attempt to provide them with a better life by removing them completely from their Native past. This was damaging to both the children and their tribes, resulting finally in the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 (George, 1997). These children, as they grew into adolescence and adulthood, had difficulties as they became aware of not really belonging in either world. They were not fully accepted into the white world of their adopted families, yet they had also lost their tribal identities (Abinanti, n.d.).
Overall, the perspective that the best thing for orphaned Haitian children is immediate removal from their country for adoption is questionable. Some thought needs to be given for any child adopted between cultures, and especially for children who experience trauma preceding that adoption. For those children already adopted, it should not be overlooked that it will be necessary to help these children draw strength from both cultural backgrounds and to resolve the differences, in order to grow up whole at home in both worlds. There is a need for continuing support for the new adoptive families to help these children maintain and value their ties to both cultures.
Abinanti, A. (n.d.). The Indian Child Welfare Act and CASA/GAL volunteers: Advocating for the best interests of native children. Available from http://www.casanet.org/program-services/tribal/index.htm
Avant, F. (2004). African Americans in rural areas. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 77-86). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Dutch airlift brings Haitian kids for adoption (2010, January 22). The Daily Triplicate, p. A10.
George, L. (1997). Why the need for the Indian Child Welfare Act? [Abstract]. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 5(3/4), 165-175. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from Academic Search Elite database.
Velazquez, S. (2010). Haiti’s children: Is foreign adoption the answer? Who We Are: American Humane’s Blog. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from
http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/american-humane-blog/blog-posts/haitis-children-is-foreign-adoption-the-answer.html
People in Western nations speeded up adoptions of Haitian orphans that had been in progress, in order to remove them to a safer environment away from the disaster of their own country. The children were airlifted out of Haiti by some governments in the initial world reaction to protect the children coming from orphanages that were now piles of rubble. At first most of the children appeared to have been in the process of adoption, but some scooped children up and tried to take them out of the country without first obtaining approval of their status as adoptable orphans, or consideration of other available extended family who might want them. The Haitian government within a few weeks put a temporary stop on adoptions because of such misguided attempts (Velazquez, 2010).
There was a comment in one of the articles about the Dutch airlift that counselors skilled in handling post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied the children on the plane. Their presence appeared unnecessary as the children slept, ate and played (Dutch Airlift, 2010). The presence of the counselors was certainly helpful, and may have contributed to the ease of the transition at that particular time. However, there was no mention of helping the children with their new environment, as these children grow up between two different cultural worldviews, the Afrocentric one of their native country and the Eurocentric one of the new adoptive parents in the West.
According to Avant (2004), the Afrocentric worldview is the opposite of the Eurocentric worldview. The Afrocentric worldview is communal, as well as spiritual, with a holistic perspective of the interconnections of people and all things. Extended kinship networks and neighbors are important, with mutual cooperation valued and reinforced by shared experience. The Eurocentric worldview, in contrast, is much more individualistic and materialistic. Haitian children, coming from the Afrocentric culture of Haiti where they fit in without any effort, must now navigate a bewildering new world on both a physical and a cultural level. What sorts of counseling resources will this new group of adopted children and parents have to mesh their conflicting cultures within the new family?
Rescuing children from real or perceived difficult environments or disasters is not that unusual. It has happened many times over in the past, especially when it seemed there were no better alternatives if the children remained, in the particular cultural viewpoint of their rescuers. It happened in the United States during the Indian Adoption era from the 1950s to the 1970s, when child welfare agencies removed a large proportion of Native American children from poverty conditions, placing them with Caucasian families across state lines in a misguided attempt to provide them with a better life by removing them completely from their Native past. This was damaging to both the children and their tribes, resulting finally in the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 (George, 1997). These children, as they grew into adolescence and adulthood, had difficulties as they became aware of not really belonging in either world. They were not fully accepted into the white world of their adopted families, yet they had also lost their tribal identities (Abinanti, n.d.).
Overall, the perspective that the best thing for orphaned Haitian children is immediate removal from their country for adoption is questionable. Some thought needs to be given for any child adopted between cultures, and especially for children who experience trauma preceding that adoption. For those children already adopted, it should not be overlooked that it will be necessary to help these children draw strength from both cultural backgrounds and to resolve the differences, in order to grow up whole at home in both worlds. There is a need for continuing support for the new adoptive families to help these children maintain and value their ties to both cultures.
References
Abinanti, A. (n.d.). The Indian Child Welfare Act and CASA/GAL volunteers: Advocating for the best interests of native children. Available from http://www.casanet.org/program-services/tribal/index.htm
Avant, F. (2004). African Americans in rural areas. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 77-86). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Dutch airlift brings Haitian kids for adoption (2010, January 22). The Daily Triplicate, p. A10.
George, L. (1997). Why the need for the Indian Child Welfare Act? [Abstract]. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 5(3/4), 165-175. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from Academic Search Elite database.
Velazquez, S. (2010). Haiti’s children: Is foreign adoption the answer? Who We Are: American Humane’s Blog. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from
http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/american-humane-blog/blog-posts/haitis-children-is-foreign-adoption-the-answer.html
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Just for the Fun of It
I have been blogging on several serious topics up to this point. Just for fun, I want to share something not quite so serious, that a friend sent to me. It keeps its charm and complexity through more than one replay. It was created by Alan Becker in 2003, and can be found at the following link:
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf
I hope that you have as much fun watching it as I have had. If not for the Internet bringing us all together as a community, we would not have access to knowledge of many things, too many of them serious. Just as much, we would miss some of the joy that human creativity can bring to all of us, for lack of a way to share it. So for a change of pace, please point your mouse, click and play to enjoy.
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf
I hope that you have as much fun watching it as I have had. If not for the Internet bringing us all together as a community, we would not have access to knowledge of many things, too many of them serious. Just as much, we would miss some of the joy that human creativity can bring to all of us, for lack of a way to share it. So for a change of pace, please point your mouse, click and play to enjoy.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Meditation Is Practical
This particular blog is meant to be more in the nature of a real blog. I have been getting some feed back from family, who naturally hold the privilege of saying what they really think. One just told me that they quit reading after the third paragraph of the last blog. Another, quite delicately, put it that my blogs are not really blogs. They are right: what I have been doing is very long for a blog, and a bit involved. I started this blog because it was a requirement to write ten 3-page blogs (with citations) for a graduate level class in community social work, connecting the topic to class readings as well. Three pages is long for a typical blog, and connecting a topic back to the textbook increases the length even while it adds perspective. Because of the feedback, and because I am quite simply running out of time to continue with the mini-term paper approach, this blog is supposed to be more like a typical blog, on meditation and its practical side effects.
I started meditating last summer, when I took a short class in contemplative meditation, essentially a form of transcendental meditation. I would never have considered or continued any form of meditation normally, but this was very simple to do, and seemed to have practical benefits almost immediately. After a few weeks I noticed that meditating helped me to think more clearly afterward, especially when I was writing papers or studying. Although emotions do surface during meditation, if I was feeling anxious about something or a little down, meditating for 20 minutes made these feelings more tolerable. Strangely, the hardest thing about meditation was making the time to do it on a reliable basis. Yet the benefits I received after a fairly short period of practice were enough to encourage me to persist.
I didn't understand what was happening till I read a book recommended for my community social work class. It had an intriguing title "How God Changes Your Brain," written by Newberg and Waldman in 2009. It was recommended because it dealt with neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a long word that describes the ability of the brain to undergo structural changes throughout life in response to the environment and to how the brain is used. Permanent changes in the brain occur far more rapidly than previously believed, especially if strongly stimulated. The title aroused my curiosity, as the title almost sells the book, though I would also say that the title was both accurate and misleading.
One of the things emphasized in the meditation class was that it was the continuing practice itself that should be viewed as the goal, not whether any particular state of mind was always achieved. Newberg and Waldman write similarly, finding that it was the actual process of meditation that produced permanent neural changes, regardless of whether or not there was a religious orientation. Meditation is focused attention. It affects specific neural circuits that are also linked to social awareness and compassion, increasing blood flow to the cognitive prefrontal cortex and decreasing blood flow to the emotional centers. Meditation has been found to improve cognition at any age, as well as to decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. However, there is a flip side to this effect. Meditation only does this if the focus of meditation is positive. Meditation with a focus on something unpleasant, such as an angry God, actually damages the brain.
Work and associated activities seem to often require multitasking in our society. To relax and recover, leisure activities seem to be single focus activities, such as playing sports, musical activities, videos, games, reading, painting, pottery, and other creative outlets. Due to neuroplasticity, whatever we chose to do changes the neural connections in the brain. If meditation can have both positive and negative effects depending on where the emphasis is placed, then what happens in the brain with other repetitive activities that require focused attention?
With meditation, because of the neurological pathways activated, there are positive side effects of increased cognition, social awareness, compassion, and a decrease of negative emotions. We live in ever widening communities, and changes we create in ourselves contribute one way or another to the society that we create as a group. If simple meditation became a more common practice, if more of us stopped and focused our awareness on just one positive thought for a brief period each day, then I think it is possible that it could affect others around us, and the communities in which we live.
I started meditating last summer, when I took a short class in contemplative meditation, essentially a form of transcendental meditation. I would never have considered or continued any form of meditation normally, but this was very simple to do, and seemed to have practical benefits almost immediately. After a few weeks I noticed that meditating helped me to think more clearly afterward, especially when I was writing papers or studying. Although emotions do surface during meditation, if I was feeling anxious about something or a little down, meditating for 20 minutes made these feelings more tolerable. Strangely, the hardest thing about meditation was making the time to do it on a reliable basis. Yet the benefits I received after a fairly short period of practice were enough to encourage me to persist.
I didn't understand what was happening till I read a book recommended for my community social work class. It had an intriguing title "How God Changes Your Brain," written by Newberg and Waldman in 2009. It was recommended because it dealt with neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a long word that describes the ability of the brain to undergo structural changes throughout life in response to the environment and to how the brain is used. Permanent changes in the brain occur far more rapidly than previously believed, especially if strongly stimulated. The title aroused my curiosity, as the title almost sells the book, though I would also say that the title was both accurate and misleading.
One of the things emphasized in the meditation class was that it was the continuing practice itself that should be viewed as the goal, not whether any particular state of mind was always achieved. Newberg and Waldman write similarly, finding that it was the actual process of meditation that produced permanent neural changes, regardless of whether or not there was a religious orientation. Meditation is focused attention. It affects specific neural circuits that are also linked to social awareness and compassion, increasing blood flow to the cognitive prefrontal cortex and decreasing blood flow to the emotional centers. Meditation has been found to improve cognition at any age, as well as to decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. However, there is a flip side to this effect. Meditation only does this if the focus of meditation is positive. Meditation with a focus on something unpleasant, such as an angry God, actually damages the brain.
Work and associated activities seem to often require multitasking in our society. To relax and recover, leisure activities seem to be single focus activities, such as playing sports, musical activities, videos, games, reading, painting, pottery, and other creative outlets. Due to neuroplasticity, whatever we chose to do changes the neural connections in the brain. If meditation can have both positive and negative effects depending on where the emphasis is placed, then what happens in the brain with other repetitive activities that require focused attention?
With meditation, because of the neurological pathways activated, there are positive side effects of increased cognition, social awareness, compassion, and a decrease of negative emotions. We live in ever widening communities, and changes we create in ourselves contribute one way or another to the society that we create as a group. If simple meditation became a more common practice, if more of us stopped and focused our awareness on just one positive thought for a brief period each day, then I think it is possible that it could affect others around us, and the communities in which we live.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Community Social Work After the Earthquake in Haiti: Sustainable Development
Haiti has the reputation of being the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Before a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, near the Haitian capitol, there were over 10,000 relief agencies with a presence in Haiti, along with the UN peacekeeping force (Kidder, 2010). The response of governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to the disaster in Haiti has been massive, yet the news is filled with the lack of coordination of aid and difficulties in delivery of available supplies. Granted, the aid groups were affected by the quake as well, but they were also spread out over the country. What is complicating communication and coordination between the earthquake relief effort and the people of Haiti?
Democracy Now (2010, January 22) looked into this question, interviewing people in Haiti while traveling from the capitol to the epicenter of the quake: Léogâne.
Democracy Now found that the main problem with aid distribution is due to the designation of “Red Zones,” which place restrictions on access to many areas based on security concerns. In these zones, aid groups travel in sealed vehicles, out of contact with the people they are there to help. Food is distributed from hovering helicopters rather than face-to-face on the ground. There is a fear of the Haitian people blocking the establishment of good communications with community leaders, as well as a lack of interpreters that could be available within the Haitian population. The people of Haiti have banded together into community groups to help each other, but are frustrated by their inability to obtain things like fuel to move the resources they do have. For instance, there is available water, water trucks and Haitian drivers available to distribute water from wells, but no gas for the water trucks. The local community knows what it has, and what it can do, but communication between natural helping networks in the community and the aid groups is lacking. Instead of following good community social work practice and tapping into the community as a first step, the first concern has been security.
Democracy Now, in another set of interviews on January 14, 2010, detailed the history of Haiti and its relationships to western governments, particularly the US government. The US has had a historically poor relationship with Haiti. In news reports the response of the US has centered around the military first securing control of the airport and putting priority on security concerns, as opposed to the responses from other governments in the area.
The large loss of life in the Haitian capitol, Port-au-Prince, is related to the presence of shantytowns built up along the hillsides and along ravines in the least desirable areas of the city. There has been an exodus of people from the countryside to the city in search of manufacturing jobs. Before the effort to industrialize initiated by outsiders, Haiti had an agrarian economy. The question now is how best to help Haiti rebuild into a healthier, sustainable economy. Haitians lack even the bare essentials of adequate food and water in the city, and survival is at the forefront of their concern. Even without a nearby earthquake, the economic situation of Haitian people crowded into Port-au-Prince would be unacceptable. Their labor and the economic rewards of industrialization have not been for the benefit of Haitians as a people, but for the economic benefit of others (Hallward, 2010, January 13).
Before anything else can happen for the good of the people of Haiti, they need to be able to feed and provide for their own families reliably. Haitians are best served at this time by helping them to help themselves by employing them for the short-term needs of a disaster, and networking with their own community leaders. Following this, a grass-roots redevelopment effort in sustainable agriculture can be the start of an economic base that will benefit the people of Haiti first, and eventually provide excess agricultural commodities to sell and raise the standard of living. Schobert and Barron (2004) describe a successful sustainable agricultural program sponsored by World Hunger Relief in Haiti. It built upon Haiti’s small, subsistence farming tradition, instead of imposing an outside view of economic development built on a supply of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, in cities that cannot provide basic services or safe housing for the numbers of people displaced from the countryside.
The first, most basic step in utilizing community strengths after the earthquake is partnership with the people of Haiti. Community resources should be sought out and built upon, not overlooked due to fear and security issues. For those able to help financially, consider focusing on those organizations that emphasize the community work approach. These NGOs place a priority on employing Haitians and partnering with community leaders. The most effective ones will be organizations with a previous history in Haiti and established community connections. This information is available on the website for InterAction, the largest coalition of US led NGOs in relief efforts. The InterAction listing describes the varied approaches of the NGO’s providing relief efforts in Haiti.
Howard, P. (2010, January 13). Our role in Haiti’s plight [Electronic version]. Guardian (no pgs). Retrieved February 21, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight
InterAction (n.d.). Interaction members respond to the earthquake in Haiti. Retrieved March 2, 2010, from http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti
Kidder, T. (2010, January 13). Country without a net [Electronic Version]. New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html
Schobert, F. M. & Barron, D. A. (2004). Community development in an international setting: The role of sustainable agriculture in social work practice. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 178-191). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Security “Red Zones” in Haiti preventing large aid groups from effectively distributing aid. (2010, January 22). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing
US policy in Haiti over decades “Lays the foundation for why impact of natural disaster is so severe.” (2010, January 14). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/us_policy_in_haiti_over_decades
Democracy Now (2010, January 22) looked into this question, interviewing people in Haiti while traveling from the capitol to the epicenter of the quake: Léogâne.
Democracy Now found that the main problem with aid distribution is due to the designation of “Red Zones,” which place restrictions on access to many areas based on security concerns. In these zones, aid groups travel in sealed vehicles, out of contact with the people they are there to help. Food is distributed from hovering helicopters rather than face-to-face on the ground. There is a fear of the Haitian people blocking the establishment of good communications with community leaders, as well as a lack of interpreters that could be available within the Haitian population. The people of Haiti have banded together into community groups to help each other, but are frustrated by their inability to obtain things like fuel to move the resources they do have. For instance, there is available water, water trucks and Haitian drivers available to distribute water from wells, but no gas for the water trucks. The local community knows what it has, and what it can do, but communication between natural helping networks in the community and the aid groups is lacking. Instead of following good community social work practice and tapping into the community as a first step, the first concern has been security.
Democracy Now, in another set of interviews on January 14, 2010, detailed the history of Haiti and its relationships to western governments, particularly the US government. The US has had a historically poor relationship with Haiti. In news reports the response of the US has centered around the military first securing control of the airport and putting priority on security concerns, as opposed to the responses from other governments in the area.
The large loss of life in the Haitian capitol, Port-au-Prince, is related to the presence of shantytowns built up along the hillsides and along ravines in the least desirable areas of the city. There has been an exodus of people from the countryside to the city in search of manufacturing jobs. Before the effort to industrialize initiated by outsiders, Haiti had an agrarian economy. The question now is how best to help Haiti rebuild into a healthier, sustainable economy. Haitians lack even the bare essentials of adequate food and water in the city, and survival is at the forefront of their concern. Even without a nearby earthquake, the economic situation of Haitian people crowded into Port-au-Prince would be unacceptable. Their labor and the economic rewards of industrialization have not been for the benefit of Haitians as a people, but for the economic benefit of others (Hallward, 2010, January 13).
Before anything else can happen for the good of the people of Haiti, they need to be able to feed and provide for their own families reliably. Haitians are best served at this time by helping them to help themselves by employing them for the short-term needs of a disaster, and networking with their own community leaders. Following this, a grass-roots redevelopment effort in sustainable agriculture can be the start of an economic base that will benefit the people of Haiti first, and eventually provide excess agricultural commodities to sell and raise the standard of living. Schobert and Barron (2004) describe a successful sustainable agricultural program sponsored by World Hunger Relief in Haiti. It built upon Haiti’s small, subsistence farming tradition, instead of imposing an outside view of economic development built on a supply of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, in cities that cannot provide basic services or safe housing for the numbers of people displaced from the countryside.
The first, most basic step in utilizing community strengths after the earthquake is partnership with the people of Haiti. Community resources should be sought out and built upon, not overlooked due to fear and security issues. For those able to help financially, consider focusing on those organizations that emphasize the community work approach. These NGOs place a priority on employing Haitians and partnering with community leaders. The most effective ones will be organizations with a previous history in Haiti and established community connections. This information is available on the website for InterAction, the largest coalition of US led NGOs in relief efforts. The InterAction listing describes the varied approaches of the NGO’s providing relief efforts in Haiti.
References
Howard, P. (2010, January 13). Our role in Haiti’s plight [Electronic version]. Guardian (no pgs). Retrieved February 21, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight
InterAction (n.d.). Interaction members respond to the earthquake in Haiti. Retrieved March 2, 2010, from http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti
Kidder, T. (2010, January 13). Country without a net [Electronic Version]. New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html
Schobert, F. M. & Barron, D. A. (2004). Community development in an international setting: The role of sustainable agriculture in social work practice. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 178-191). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Security “Red Zones” in Haiti preventing large aid groups from effectively distributing aid. (2010, January 22). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing
US policy in Haiti over decades “Lays the foundation for why impact of natural disaster is so severe.” (2010, January 14). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/us_policy_in_haiti_over_decades
Friday, February 5, 2010
Heavy Metal Florists: Mercury Toxicity in the US Floral Industry
Much has been written on the negative health effects of unregulated pesticides use on workers in the cut flower industry in South America and other developing countries. Close to 80% of all flowers and 92% of all roses are imported into the United States, with South America as the main source (Stewart, 2007; Bergman, 2008). There is no monitoring or regulation on the pesticide levels of imported flowers because flowers are not a food product. Flowers need only be free of pests and diseases upon importation into the US (Tenenbaum, 2002). The health effects of handling and smelling contaminated flowers per se on florist and consumer is not a readily available topic on the Internet or in a literature search.
Although no studies show that contaminated flowers have been shown to affect consumers, Bergman (2008) states that exposure to toxic substances in confined spaces like the average home may have an as yet unknown effect on health. The most found thus far in searching the internet for the effects on florists in this country is a reference to contact dermatitis in floral workers who handle contaminated flowers imported from South America (Harris, 2008). Sanborn et al (2007) discusses dermatitis as the most common health effect due to contact with pesticides, while acute and chronic exposure is known to result in neurological symptoms. As my friend Jill and other florists in two adjacent rural counties in Northern California have discovered, much more than dermatitis can result from handling pesticide-contaminated flowers. Jill is the second of seven long-time florists in Del Norte and Humboldt counties to experience symptoms and test positive for heavy metal toxicity. Jill is positive for an elevated mercury level, while the others have tested positive with combinations of elevated levels of the heavy metals lead, arsenic, cadmium, silver and mercury. The Pesticide Action Network (2009) searchable database for active ingredients in pesticides by chemical name lists 167 active ingredients containing heavy metals, of which 79 contain mercury.
Jill’s first symptom that something was badly wrong came on an ordinary morning in 2004, when she rolled over in bed, and suddenly the whole world whirled and kept on whirling. This is the feeling of severe vertigo, and Jill’s response was to throw up, again and again and again. Severe vertigo is “like being on a rollercoaster all the time” according to Jill. Jill had to be heavily sedated for that week until, just as suddenly, the vertigo, headaches and vomiting went away. Then it happened twice again in 2005. At first, an ear infection was suspected since Jill was a lifeguard as well as a florist, but this was ruled out each time. These acute episodes remained a mystery with a fast onset and end, till in January 24, 2006, when Jill rolled over in bed once more, and this time the vertigo did not go away.
Jill found that she could no longer work, could no longer stand, could no longer do much of anything other than lie in a darkened room with the covers pulled over her head to cut out all light. Her condition worsened. Her symptoms were unremitting and debilitating, and included severe vertigo with nausea, severe and chronic fatigue, constant migraines, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and lack of focus, heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety and excitability. There were psychomotor symptoms such as suddenly garbled speech and sporadic loss of handwriting ability. She was bewildered by the appearance of uncontrollable salivation as well as a metallic taste in her mouth. Jill, along with her husband and her family caring for her, felt that she was going to die. Jill did not know that her strange symptoms of uncontrollable salivation, tremors, and mood disorders were indicative of excessive mercury exposure. Meticulous about her dental health, Jill developed gingivitis and a sensation that her teeth were loosening up (Venes, 2001).
With her husband’s help, Jill determinedly made the rounds of the top medical schools in California, consulting a long list of doctors. She was tested in every imaginable way, with MRIs, EEGs, hormone checks, eye and ear exams, blood and urine testing etc. Finally in June of 2006, a provocated urine test for heavy metal exposure yielded the first abnormal result: very elevated mercury levels, which had not shown up on the initial blood tests. By September, Jill began chelating treatments to try to remove the mercury with a specialist at the Lifespan Clinic at Stanford, still without knowing what had caused the elevated mercury in her body. The usual suspected source of contaminated fish was not probable, since Jill was only an occasional fish eater. In addition, the organic methyl mercury from contaminated fish usually shows up in blood tests, not on urinalysis. Since mercury showed up on urinalysis only, this indicated another source for the mercury poisoning (Hightower, 2009).
In September of 2006, a visiting friend of a friend heard about Jill. She was Dr. Margaret Peet, author of “My Doctor Says I'm Fine: So Why Do I Feel So Bad?” She had recently read an article about the cut flower industry in South American countries entitled “Would a Rose Not Smell As Sweet” by David Tenenbaum (2002). Jill had been a florist for 37 years, the last 19 as a manager in the floral department at Safeway. Margaret connected the similarity in Jill’s symptoms and occupation to those of the South American workers, and sought Jill out to speak to her. She provided the missing link that Jill had needed to make sense of everything that had been happening to her.
Jill has been investigating possible sources of mercury in her workplace. She made contact with another florist in the area who had shown similar symptoms before Jill, as well as five other long-term floral managers who developed symptoms after her. Each showed the same constellation of symptoms, with some symptoms exacerbated by personal risk factors. For Jill, a family history of vertigo migraines contributed to her initial symptoms. For others, primary symptoms ranged from migraines to severe memory loss similar to Alzheimer’s Disease, and included kidney damage, seizures, chronic fatigue, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
The questions cannot help but come up: Why here, in this small rural area? What is different in this area that has resulted in seven long-term floral workers testing positive for heavy metals? Why has this not shown up in urban areas, which do far more floral business? Perhaps a better question would be to ask, how were the seven women able to find out about each other’s similar symptoms? The answer lies in the nature of Jill’s small rural community, where residents know each other and share information readily. Watkins (2004) describes rural helping networks as a web of interconnections and personalized concern for each other, as opposed to urban networks with far fewer personal communications and concerns. Dr. Peet’s drop-in visit with Jill, after learning of her problems from a mutual friend, was an example of this extended helping network. My willingness to advocate for Jill and the others by researching and writing this blog to reach the cyberspace community is another. Each affected florist involved was able to use the extended networks found in rural communities and share information, in the process avoiding the common misdiagnoses commonly given to women from mystified doctors.
Pesticides are neurotoxic, and symptoms are widely variable (Kammel and Hoppin, 2004). Doctors are not trained to look automatically for the unusual, such as heavy metal toxicity, in the first place. It is not that florists from this rural area are any different from urban florists. It is that their interconnectedness provided the additional information that allowed for proper diagnosis of their condition. Florists in urban areas are also exposed, but when their exposure is high enough or of long enough duration for exposure to cause symptoms, they will go to their doctors with mystery ailments that defy diagnosis. They are not aware yet that pesticide exposure and resulting heavy metal toxicity exists in the workplace for florists.
It is worth noting here that heavy metals accumulate in the body, and their levels could be used to provide a persistent biomarker for pesticide exposure, if doctors and researchers are alerted to look for it. The title for this blog and symptom descriptions were chosen with care, in order to provide key terms likely to be used in an Internet search for those searching for such information. The purpose of this initial blog on mercury and other heavy metal exposure in the floral industry is to help Jill get the word out to others about the potential damage to those employed as florists in this country, as well as to those who purchase flowers. As for the rest of us, the only way to stop the use of banned pesticides and other practices in S. America, and anywhere else in the world, is to make it economically unsound by refusing to buy products not certified as safe. Bergman (2008) and Tanenbaum (2002) give information on certification programs in articles listed below.
In the interests of readability, additional events and information will be covered in another blog on this topic.
Jill can be reached at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
Bergman, C. (2008). A rose is [not] a rose [Electronic version]. Audubon 110, 46-53. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from http://audubonmagazine.org/features0801/organics.html
Harris, R. (2008). Think that your gift is pesticide-free? Give organic flowers and it will be. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from http://www.naturalnews.com/z023207_flowers_pesticides_Hawaii.html
Hightower, J. M. (2009). Diagnosis: mercury, money, politics & poison.
Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.
Kamel, F. & Hoppin, J.A. (2004, June). Association of pesticide exposure with neurologic dysfunction and disease [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives,112(9):950-8. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/7135/7135.html#lowl
Pesticide Action Network (2009). PAN pesticide database – chemicals. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Search_Chemicals.jsp
Sanborn, M., Kerr, K.J., Sanin, L.H., Cole, D.C., Bassil, K.L. & Vakil, C. (2007, October). Non-cancer health effects of pesticides: Systematic review and implications for family doctors [Electronic version]. Canadian Family Physician, 53, 1713-1720.
Stewart, A. (2007). Flower confidential. New York: Algonquin Books/Chapel Hill, Workman Publishing.
Tenenbaum, D. (2002). Would a rose not smell as sweet? [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), A240-A247.
Venes, D. (2001). Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. (19th Edition, pp. 1279). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Watkins, T.R. (2004). Natural helping networks: Assets for rural communities. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 65-76). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Although no studies show that contaminated flowers have been shown to affect consumers, Bergman (2008) states that exposure to toxic substances in confined spaces like the average home may have an as yet unknown effect on health. The most found thus far in searching the internet for the effects on florists in this country is a reference to contact dermatitis in floral workers who handle contaminated flowers imported from South America (Harris, 2008). Sanborn et al (2007) discusses dermatitis as the most common health effect due to contact with pesticides, while acute and chronic exposure is known to result in neurological symptoms. As my friend Jill and other florists in two adjacent rural counties in Northern California have discovered, much more than dermatitis can result from handling pesticide-contaminated flowers. Jill is the second of seven long-time florists in Del Norte and Humboldt counties to experience symptoms and test positive for heavy metal toxicity. Jill is positive for an elevated mercury level, while the others have tested positive with combinations of elevated levels of the heavy metals lead, arsenic, cadmium, silver and mercury. The Pesticide Action Network (2009) searchable database for active ingredients in pesticides by chemical name lists 167 active ingredients containing heavy metals, of which 79 contain mercury.
Jill’s first symptom that something was badly wrong came on an ordinary morning in 2004, when she rolled over in bed, and suddenly the whole world whirled and kept on whirling. This is the feeling of severe vertigo, and Jill’s response was to throw up, again and again and again. Severe vertigo is “like being on a rollercoaster all the time” according to Jill. Jill had to be heavily sedated for that week until, just as suddenly, the vertigo, headaches and vomiting went away. Then it happened twice again in 2005. At first, an ear infection was suspected since Jill was a lifeguard as well as a florist, but this was ruled out each time. These acute episodes remained a mystery with a fast onset and end, till in January 24, 2006, when Jill rolled over in bed once more, and this time the vertigo did not go away.
Jill found that she could no longer work, could no longer stand, could no longer do much of anything other than lie in a darkened room with the covers pulled over her head to cut out all light. Her condition worsened. Her symptoms were unremitting and debilitating, and included severe vertigo with nausea, severe and chronic fatigue, constant migraines, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and lack of focus, heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety and excitability. There were psychomotor symptoms such as suddenly garbled speech and sporadic loss of handwriting ability. She was bewildered by the appearance of uncontrollable salivation as well as a metallic taste in her mouth. Jill, along with her husband and her family caring for her, felt that she was going to die. Jill did not know that her strange symptoms of uncontrollable salivation, tremors, and mood disorders were indicative of excessive mercury exposure. Meticulous about her dental health, Jill developed gingivitis and a sensation that her teeth were loosening up (Venes, 2001).
With her husband’s help, Jill determinedly made the rounds of the top medical schools in California, consulting a long list of doctors. She was tested in every imaginable way, with MRIs, EEGs, hormone checks, eye and ear exams, blood and urine testing etc. Finally in June of 2006, a provocated urine test for heavy metal exposure yielded the first abnormal result: very elevated mercury levels, which had not shown up on the initial blood tests. By September, Jill began chelating treatments to try to remove the mercury with a specialist at the Lifespan Clinic at Stanford, still without knowing what had caused the elevated mercury in her body. The usual suspected source of contaminated fish was not probable, since Jill was only an occasional fish eater. In addition, the organic methyl mercury from contaminated fish usually shows up in blood tests, not on urinalysis. Since mercury showed up on urinalysis only, this indicated another source for the mercury poisoning (Hightower, 2009). In September of 2006, a visiting friend of a friend heard about Jill. She was Dr. Margaret Peet, author of “My Doctor Says I'm Fine: So Why Do I Feel So Bad?” She had recently read an article about the cut flower industry in South American countries entitled “Would a Rose Not Smell As Sweet” by David Tenenbaum (2002). Jill had been a florist for 37 years, the last 19 as a manager in the floral department at Safeway. Margaret connected the similarity in Jill’s symptoms and occupation to those of the South American workers, and sought Jill out to speak to her. She provided the missing link that Jill had needed to make sense of everything that had been happening to her.
Jill has been investigating possible sources of mercury in her workplace. She made contact with another florist in the area who had shown similar symptoms before Jill, as well as five other long-term floral managers who developed symptoms after her. Each showed the same constellation of symptoms, with some symptoms exacerbated by personal risk factors. For Jill, a family history of vertigo migraines contributed to her initial symptoms. For others, primary symptoms ranged from migraines to severe memory loss similar to Alzheimer’s Disease, and included kidney damage, seizures, chronic fatigue, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
The questions cannot help but come up: Why here, in this small rural area? What is different in this area that has resulted in seven long-term floral workers testing positive for heavy metals? Why has this not shown up in urban areas, which do far more floral business? Perhaps a better question would be to ask, how were the seven women able to find out about each other’s similar symptoms? The answer lies in the nature of Jill’s small rural community, where residents know each other and share information readily. Watkins (2004) describes rural helping networks as a web of interconnections and personalized concern for each other, as opposed to urban networks with far fewer personal communications and concerns. Dr. Peet’s drop-in visit with Jill, after learning of her problems from a mutual friend, was an example of this extended helping network. My willingness to advocate for Jill and the others by researching and writing this blog to reach the cyberspace community is another. Each affected florist involved was able to use the extended networks found in rural communities and share information, in the process avoiding the common misdiagnoses commonly given to women from mystified doctors.
Pesticides are neurotoxic, and symptoms are widely variable (Kammel and Hoppin, 2004). Doctors are not trained to look automatically for the unusual, such as heavy metal toxicity, in the first place. It is not that florists from this rural area are any different from urban florists. It is that their interconnectedness provided the additional information that allowed for proper diagnosis of their condition. Florists in urban areas are also exposed, but when their exposure is high enough or of long enough duration for exposure to cause symptoms, they will go to their doctors with mystery ailments that defy diagnosis. They are not aware yet that pesticide exposure and resulting heavy metal toxicity exists in the workplace for florists.
It is worth noting here that heavy metals accumulate in the body, and their levels could be used to provide a persistent biomarker for pesticide exposure, if doctors and researchers are alerted to look for it. The title for this blog and symptom descriptions were chosen with care, in order to provide key terms likely to be used in an Internet search for those searching for such information. The purpose of this initial blog on mercury and other heavy metal exposure in the floral industry is to help Jill get the word out to others about the potential damage to those employed as florists in this country, as well as to those who purchase flowers. As for the rest of us, the only way to stop the use of banned pesticides and other practices in S. America, and anywhere else in the world, is to make it economically unsound by refusing to buy products not certified as safe. Bergman (2008) and Tanenbaum (2002) give information on certification programs in articles listed below.
In the interests of readability, additional events and information will be covered in another blog on this topic.
Jill can be reached at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
References
Bergman, C. (2008). A rose is [not] a rose [Electronic version]. Audubon 110, 46-53. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from http://audubonmagazine.org/features0801/organics.html
Harris, R. (2008). Think that your gift is pesticide-free? Give organic flowers and it will be. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from http://www.naturalnews.com/z023207_flowers_pesticides_Hawaii.html
Hightower, J. M. (2009). Diagnosis: mercury, money, politics & poison.
Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.
Kamel, F. & Hoppin, J.A. (2004, June). Association of pesticide exposure with neurologic dysfunction and disease [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives,112(9):950-8. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/7135/7135.html#lowl
Pesticide Action Network (2009). PAN pesticide database – chemicals. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Search_Chemicals.jsp
Sanborn, M., Kerr, K.J., Sanin, L.H., Cole, D.C., Bassil, K.L. & Vakil, C. (2007, October). Non-cancer health effects of pesticides: Systematic review and implications for family doctors [Electronic version]. Canadian Family Physician, 53, 1713-1720.
Stewart, A. (2007). Flower confidential. New York: Algonquin Books/Chapel Hill, Workman Publishing.
Tenenbaum, D. (2002). Would a rose not smell as sweet? [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), A240-A247.
Venes, D. (2001). Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. (19th Edition, pp. 1279). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Watkins, T.R. (2004). Natural helping networks: Assets for rural communities. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 65-76). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
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